July 14, 2008

Okay, I raised the subject of Obama's humorlessness. "I have no response to that" was all he said about that New Yorker cover, and I speculated that he could have laughed. Then I frontpaged a comment — made by my younger son — that read: "He's always been dead serious about everything. Has he ever said anything funny?"

But let's be fair. David — also in those comments — came up with the first example of Obama humor: "You're likable enough, Hillary." I agree that was humor. I note too that it was directed at his opponent, sounded rather mean, and ended up hurting him.

I'm not declaring favorites in the presidential campaign, but I've got to say that stuff like this makes me love Obama, at least on a personal level:

Obama began by recalling a moment in Tuesday night's debate when he and his rivals were asked to name their biggest weakness. Obama answered first, saying he has a messy desk and needs help managing paperwork - something his opponents have since used to suggest he's not up to managing the country. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards said his biggest weakness is that he has a powerful response to seeing pain in others, and Clinton said she gets impatient to bring change to America.

"Because I'm an ordinary person, I thought that they meant, 'What's your biggest weakness?'" Obama said to laughter from a packed house at Rancho High School. "If I had gone last I would have known what the game was. And then I could have said, 'Well, ya know, I like to help old ladies across the street. Sometimes they don't want to be helped. It's terrible.'"

Now, that was good.

So we could write a book called "The Wit and Humor of Barack Obama." But how thick would it be? You know, there was a book called "The Wit and Humor of Richard Nixon." Here's a Time Magazine article about it from 1969:

To many, the fact that Nixon has even a mild sense of humor comes as a surprise. And, in fact, the President did come by the gift of laughter, in public anyway, rather late in life. Perhaps because he felt he had to counterbalance his youth with seriousness for so many years—he was, at 39, the second youngest U.S. Vice President in history—Nixon was until last year the paradigm of sobriety. Then, at about the same time that people started talking about the new Nixon, he began sprinkling his speeches with one-liners.

Few, to be sure, were exactly memorable. "I'm trying to graduate from college myself this fall," Nixon would tell college audiences. "The Electoral College." A few were execrable. "It's one thing to give 'em hell," he said after Hubert Humphrey had made a well-publicized visit to Harry Truman. "It's another to give them Hubert." A new paperback, The Wit & Humor of Richard Nixon is necessarily brief (128 pages), has more than the usual amount of white space and includes Nixon's entire acceptance speech at Miami Beach, which contained not a scintilla of wit.

Some Nixon jokes, however, are genuinely funny. Talking to Virginia Republicans, he gently needled both a local G.O.P. official and himself. While he was preparing the itinerary for his South American trip in 1958, Nixon told how the official, Lee Potter, had noticed one omission. "Why don't you take in Caracas?" Potter had suggested. "It's a fun town." Said Nixon: "It sure was. I got stoned there."

IN THE COMMENTS: Mister Snitch says:

Obama has gotten less spontaneous and genuine (and 'funny') as he has gotten closer to the possibility of being elected. Note also some of the outrageous gaffes, truly worthy of a Dan Quayle or ANY verbal goof Bush might have ever made. He's cracking under the pressure, and it's not going to get any easier from here.

Geez, this was a NEW YORKER cartoon. The thing to say, to ingratiate himself to millions of middle-class Americans, was this: "You know, I never did get those New Yorker cartoons".

Even the New Yorker staff would have appreciated the gibe. And it would all be behind him by now. And us.

Nixon didn't have to say anything funny. He was funny anyway. I'm not even so sure that sometimes when you'd hear Nixon on the radio, it wasn't really Rich Little standing in for him.

As far as Obama being overly serious, that is a problem at times. But then again sometimes an ill-considered joke can get a candidate in more trouble than something he is serious about saying (i.e. John Kerry's attempt at a joke 'stuck in Iraq' which for all intensive purposes ended his try and another nomination this year.)

Frankly, we are facing some of the biggest challenges we've faced in decades and I'd rather have a President who is serious about solving them than one who can crack a good one-liner.

Thank God Americans can be funny even when a President is not a yuckmeister himself.

Have you guys seen a roundup of Late Night jokes on Obama? Oh God. Still laughing. They're not mean-spirited either. They're just plain funny.

"Insiders claim that even though Jesse Jackson supports Barack Obama publicly for president, privately he doesn't like him. You know, it's kind of like Bill with Hillary."

--

"Today Jesse tried to reach out to Obama, and Obama said, 'Keep your hands where I can see them!'"

~Jay Leno

"Both McCain and Senator Barack Obama are trying to woo voters who are outside their natural demographic. In this election, for Senator Obama, that means trying to reach working class, non-Muslim white women who love America."

~Jon Stewart

"Barack's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, the guy is everywhere. ... He's making speeches. He's on the radio. And Reverend Wright says he'd rather just go home and retire, but the money Hillary is paying him is so good."

--

"Of course, the Republicans will not let this Reverend Wright controversy die. You know, they're trying to keep it in the news. Like, today they said for the wedding of President Bush's daughter, he's gonna be the minister."

John McCain isn't so good at jokes either. He told this one at the La Raza conferance and pissed off everybody:

A Mexican family crosses over the border to the Land of Milk and Honey where the streets are paved with gold. But the husband can find no work.

His family is hungry, so he takes a walk to a quiet place at the foot of a big hill, kneels at the base of a tree, and begins to pray: "Sweet Jesus, please show me a way to feed my family..."

Eyes closed, the Mexican does not see the Black guy coming over the top of the hill, who is struggling wildly with a broken grocery sack. When the Mexican man opens his eyes, a large wheel of cheddar cheese had rolled down the hill and lands at his feet!

"Oh, thank you Jesus, thank you!" he cries, grabs the cheese, and runs straight home. Upon returning home, he gives the cheese to his wife and instructs her to make nachos.

"But wouldn't you rather have cheese enchiladas and burritos and other things?" she inquires. "No," the husband says, "Jesus sent this to me with a message... As I ran home, I kept hearing Him yell,

His college buddies always said that Barry was a funny guy. When he was pledging his frat they had this big costume party. He was struggling to decide what to wear to be cool and ironic and impress the pledge master. Then he had a bright idea. When the pledge master answered the door, he found Barry standing there with no shirt and no socks on. "What the hell are you supposed to be?" he asked.. "A premature ejaculation," said young Barry Obama, "I just came in my pants!"

In his later years Nixon grew more spiritual - and according to the Democrats and Republicans and think-tankers that consulted him - more out of his introverted shell, quite funny and self-deprecating. Not with stand-up jokes, but with full anecdotes from memory that made fun of himself and the politicians and fellow statesmen he met over the years.

*************In the comments on the Obama cartoon, one thing I saw no mention of in my reading was Barack's head swollen 5 times the size of his wife's. And in Stalinist side profile. I thought that was an obvious riff on his swollen ego.*************I do hold him capable of good humor...a far better prospect than that moralistic prig Jimmy Carter. Althouse is right - his taunt about emulating the insincere smarminess of Edwards and Hillary on a personal fault...was perfect.

From Obama shill Matthew Yglesias -

I keep reading people debunking the idea that Obama is a messianic, saint-like figure and people criticizing the idea that Obama is a messianic, saint-like figure. Indeed, I've read so much commentary on the subject of how people shouldn't believe that Obama is a messianic, saint-like figure that I've become convinced that nobody actually believes that he is.

Yeah, right! Pity Team Axelrod doesn't believe it isn't true. The Grand Seal of Obama. Surrogates saying wisdom, peace, and life alteration comes from experiencing the impact of the Obama - if people only listen.Obama himself saying future generations would mark the day he clinched the nomination as "the moment the sick began to be cured, the oceans rise slowed, the Planet started healing".

Latest stunt of course by Team Axelrod is saying their vessel is so big, so important, so saintlike and messianic that unlike all past Presidents and candidates...a Convention Hall is just too small. It confines his "rock star" Greatness, and causes too much pain in the deep spiritual yearning of young women to see him, breath the same air - and the need in liberal Jews and Gentiles to be morally absolved of their sins by a Black Messiah.

Thus the planned 3-hour long Obamagasm at Mile High Stadium. His Greatness can expand to the rafters, he is too big, too potent a redeemer to be considered on a par with smaller men content to little convention halls like JFK, FDR, Reagan..

He will start with a a surrogate black making tribute to Holy Saint Martin, another messianic saint-like figure, on the 45th anniversary of his plagarized "I have a Dream" speech. Then his celebrity supporters will be trotted out, and inspiring poems to honor Obamessiah will be read. Then it is planned he "Come Forth" to adulation and read what the Team Axelrod writers have prepared for him on Teleprompter in his unique, honey-dripping black preacher oratorical style.

Chris Matthews will pronounce it "soaring" a "true inheritor of America's Greatest Man (MLK)" and announce that the tingling in his legs has progressed to a full raging hard-on and that he will pray to both God and Obama to give thanks for his "life-altering speech".

Prediction: He'll be invited on SNL and afterwards we'll discuss his funniness of his performance, whether or not it was scripted funniness (therefore fake, and unbelievable).

I think scripted humor should count, if it works. Telling a joke well is at least as hard as writing a joke. Lotsa standups have writing help. And lotsa standups do funny bits where there are no jokes at all.

Whatever--I do desire to see all my political candidates on SNL. In drag, if at all possible. (Happy to have not gone there w/ Hillary.)

Kennedy had a sense of humor because early on he recognized and accepted the absurdity of his own life. Later on we discovered how many contradictions his life contained and how deftly that wry expression was used to cover a grimace....There is much in Obama's life that does not make sense but the absurdity at the core of his existence is too frightening to kid about. The Furies will not be disarmed with a wisecrack. It is necessary for him not to stray from his narrow path, nor even reflect about his inability to stray from a narrow path. Obama the faultless family man and candidate is a creature of his own creation. If he starts poking at it, it might pop like an over puffed balloon.

During one of the debates Obama was asked about the statement that Bill Clinton was the first black president. He said that "Bill Clinton did have an enormous affinity with the African-American community" that was "well-earned." And then added that he would have to "investigate more of Bill's dancing ability, you know, and some of this other stuff before I can accurately judge whether he was in fact a brother." He got a big laugh from Hillary, Edwards, and the audience.

If you watch him in a casual setting, like the Daily Show, it's easy to see he has a good sense of humor.

Obama has gotten less spontaneous and genuine (and 'funny') as he has gotten closer to the possibility of being elected. Note also some of the outrageous gaffes, truly worthy of a Dan Quayle or ANY verbal goof Bush might have ever made. He's cracking under the pressure, and it's not going to get any easier from here.

Geez, this was a NEW YORKER cartoon. The thing to say, to ingratiate himself to millions of middle-class Americans, was this: "You know, I never did get those New Yorker cartoons".

Even the New Yorker staff would have appreciated the gibe. And it would all be behind him by now. And us.

Cedarford - it is good to see you writing here - I enjoyed your work on the Duke Hoax case, and you have lost none of your ability to cut to the truch of these stories. Keep writing, dude, it's good stuff...

Obama has no trouble at all laughing at other people. He has no trouble tossing off zingers designed to make mock of others, but he's the Obamessiah, and it is against the laws of Barack and Michelle for the Obamessiah to be laughed at or to laugh at himself.

Given his delusions of grandeur, it's a dangerous thing in him that he can't laugh at himself. That NYer cover, he could've done a fantastic riff on it that would have endeared him to a lot of people. Lots of folks could've wound up saying, "y' know, he's all right." Instead, Obama winds up looking like the self-important moron that he is.

Or, perhaps he's just insecure. It takes a great deal of self-confidence to laugh at oneself. Ask Dubya and Cheney.

Kennedy had a sense of humor because early on he recognized and accepted the absurdity of his own life. Later on we discovered how many contradictions his life contained and how deftly that wry expression was used to cover a grimace....

What a perfect psychohistory reading of a man's life, William, if I may say.

A few add-ons:

Kennedy didn't take himself seriously (he wasn't allowed to in that boisterous Irish macho culture), though he had a hidden fund of iron inside that I think surprised even himself, at times.

He didn't realise that it didn't come from the toughening up doled out by his taskmaster dad (who loved his children fiercely and affectionately). It came from his steely but undemonstrative mother, who he resented for this lack of affection.

This is a subversive recipe for a deep yearning to be loved, aligned to a deep need to show you don't care.

And as we all know, subversiveness is the starting point of all good comedy.

If you notice in the Youtube clip I showed, the very first segment shows JFK with Sarge Shriver, flying by the seat of their pants at an awards event.

Instead of becoming touchy or pompous, the young President makes a quip about his amateurishness, whilst tugging his shirt collar in a wonderful vaudevillian gesture.

Try as I might, I can never imagine Obama that raw, that vulnerable, that public in his self-deprecation.

There is much in Obama's life that does not make sense but the absurdity at the core of his existence is too frightening to kid about. The Furies will not be disarmed with a wisecrack. It is necessary for him not to stray from his narrow path, nor even reflect about his inability to stray from a narrow path. Obama the faultless family man and candidate is a creature of his own creation. If he starts poking at it, it might pop like an over puffed balloon.

"Intensive purposes", of course a malaprop as used here, nevertheless makes sense in a Yogi Berra kind of way: I mean could it be that the reason Obamessiah has no sense of humor is that his purposes are so intensive?

“Intensive purposes” sounds like a lot of the typos I produce in my own writing; which often, I find, go beyond mere letter interchanges, to alter the word (or sometimes several words) typed into other word(s) which sound phonetically like the intended string. I attribute it to a typical malfunction (or insufficient error correction) in one’s own speech-writing programs. Moreover, it’s the sort of thing that external spelling checkers oftentimes can’t catch (though grammatical analysis might help) — thus, proofread!

Great post, Ann. It’s certainly grown since I first encountered it. Love that Seinfeld skit (which I hadn’t seen before; I’m not much of a Seinfeld fan) in the context — so naturally I had to do a search on “Vorshtein”, only to stumble upon this entry by Chris Selley on the Macleans blog, which well illustrates, I think, the point about New Yorker-style cartoons (even though it appeared in the Globe and Mail).

Chris writes that they “have agonized over this editorial cartoon from Saturday’s Globe and Mail (click to enlarge), and we have no idea what it’s supposed to mean. Is this Quebec’s present? Its future? By what mischance did this friendly merchant find himself with his multiethnic panoply-on-wheels in Hérouxville, of all places? What has this unimpressed-looking man been served, and why did he order it if he didn’t want it?”

Yet, I think the cartoon is hilarious and perfectly comprehensible — though I also love that comment from the Seinfeld skit: “Cartoons are like gossamer and one doesn't dissect gossamer…”, which seems quite appropos to the situation, and perhaps reflects the problem Chris and the Macleans staff are having with it.

I don't care if the president cracks jokes. If he's a natural wit, like Lincoln or JFK or Reagan, it's okay. Otherwise, I'd prefer that he didn't. I don't recall Washington making any jokes, or Adams, and I don't recall Jefferson cracking wise, either.

I don't care if the president cracks jokes. If he's a natural wit, like Lincoln or JFK or Reagan, it's okay. Otherwise, I'd prefer that he didn't. I don't recall Washington making any jokes, or Adams, and I don't recall Jefferson cracking wise, either.

Well, it was a while ago, but I seem to recall that Washington was very fond of bawdy humor, and wasn't above making "lobsterback" jokes--an early form of "clap humor" similar to Jon Stewart's.

And I wish they'd stay off the comedy talk shows, too.

Well, really, the Internet was hardly viable in the early days of the Republic, so they had to go on those classic ol' shows like "Poor Richard Tonight" and "Locke & Hobbes".